The loudspeaker coming under the microscope this month emanates from north of the border. The Canadian loudspeaker industry has benefited enormously in the last few years from having the measurement, testing, and listening facilities of Canada's National Research Council in Ottawa made available to it on a commercial basis. Unlike the US or even the UK, where a new speaker designer has pretty much to rely on his own resources, having to invent his own test procedure as well as design the product, the Canadian equivalent can have his loudspeaker tested under standard conditions, quickly indicating whether he is on the right track or not. (He still, of course, has to rely on his own talent to get on the right track in the first place or to get back on it if it appears that something is amiss.)

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

Why bother with three phono preamps most of us can't afford? For the same reason the enthusiast automobile magazines cover the newest Ferraris and Lamborghinis: just <I>reading</I> about them is fun.

<A HREF="http://www.stereophile.com/musicrecordings/131/index8.html">Robert Silverman</A>, whose many recordings for <I>Stereophile</I> have made him a living legend among audiophiles, continues his <A HREF="http://www.audiohigh.org/upcoming-events">series of performances</A> of all of Beethoven's piano sonatas in San Jos&#233;, California, November 11 and 18. Held in San Jose's lovely and acoustically superior Le Petit Trianon Theatre, the concerts mark the halfway point in Silverman's eight-concert series. All proceeds go toward building, at Stanford Children's Hospital, an <A HREF="http://www.elfsystems.org">Elf Foundation Room of Magic</A>: a private entertainment theater in which uplifting music and films can be shared with patients.